Spies Like Us: Claims of Bugging, Hidden Cameras, Italian Intelligence Links Among [Vatican] London Deal Key Players

The Pillar ^ | 1/31/22

[marshmallow]

A businessman tied to the Vatican’s London property deal admitted to prosecutors that he spied on behalf of the Vatican on a broker involved in the deal, and passed information on to an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The spying admission emerged in newly released recordings of interviews conducted by Vatican prosecutors in the financial crimes trial, in which 10 figures connected to the property deal have been indicted.

The recordings also allege other efforts at suspect intelligence-gathering by figures involved in the deal, and highlight Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s alleged efforts to conceal Vatican payments to Cecilia Marogna, a woman described as the cardinal’s “private spy.”

Testimony that Vatican officials engaged in corporate espionage sheds new light on the breakdown of the London property deal, which cost the Holy See more than 100 million euros and led to the landmark trial currently underway in Vatican City.

During an April 2021 interview with Vatican investigators, Luciano Capaldo, a property developer who was closely involved in the Secretariat’s plans for the London building at 60 Sloane Avenue, explained that he had agreed to help officials at the Secretariat of State spy on Gianluigi Torzi, the broker engaged by the secretariat to finalize the purchase of the building from Raffaele Mincione in 2018.

Capaldo told investigators that he had access for a period of time to surveillance cameras inside Torzi’s offices, and passed information and images to Monsignor Mauro Carlino, a former official at the Secretariat of State currently indicted for extortion and abuse of office.

[MDLION]

Wonder if Cardinal Pell knew something about financial shenanigans and was done dirty, thrown to the wolves?